A Christmas Carol

Here, as a Christmas treat, is a new (to me, anyway) radio adaptation of A Christmas Carol. This one is from the BBC4 children’s series Story Time, which did a 12-part series called Characters (or Portraits, sources differ) From Dickens in 1970. “Scrooge” was No. 11 in the series and aired on December 22, 1970. It was subsequently released on CMS Records, Inc. in 1972. (The B-side of the LP was “Magwitch” from Great Expectations, No. 7 in the radio series, but that’s neither here nor there.)

The cast:
Narrator - Anthony Jacobs
Scrooge - Patrick Magee
Fred - Carlo Cura
Old Gentleman - John Hollis
Cratchit, Marley - Geoffrey Wincott
Ghosts - Henry Stamper
Girl - Diana Robson
Woman - Lynn Carson
Boy - Paul Hennen

This is a nice, workmanlike version, faithful with minor exceptions to Dickens’ text, and has a leisurely feel despite its brief 28-minute running time. Patrick Magee is a better-than-average Scrooge, and the rest of the cast is fine. Enjoy and/or bah, humbug!

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Happy Holidays, Red Eagle, and thanks for this contribution.

Without raining on a snow-filled parade, just let me remind everyone that we can't post BBC programs on the site due to restrictions and copyright rules. Also, remember we cannot host programs past 1962!  So to pre-empt a flood of the British classics, let's be careful.   Now, on the other hand, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] offers a treasure trove of holidays programs from the Beeb, Radio New Zealand, Radio Scotland and other sources we can't host here.

Deck the halls!
Jeff